I know that everyone assumes a grandparent has unbounded and unconditional love for a grandkid. It's just the way it is. But is it possible that we also love our kids, our adult kids more and more as the years progress and we all get (much) older? I'm going to say yes. I love my two grown girls more with each day, each year, even as I stand back a little, and watch them work out their own lives, plan their own family life, develop their own adult interests. Much of childhood moves forward with reserves of untapped potential festering within, waiting for a breakout moment. And then it explodes and you see not the bud but the full bloom and it is magnificent, and you are in awe of what has become of those squirts who fussed about too much tomato sauce on their spaghetti.
Today, I tracked another day in the lives of my Chicago daughter and her family. Magnificent blooms, all of them!
Primrose is off to school in the morning and she asks me to walk her over.
It's maybe a 10-15 minute walk and she wants me to continue the story I plunged into at lunchtime yesterday. A never ending story about a grandma and a bird who ate chocolate cake and a little girl who never told lies.
(Snowdrop has her own never ending story request in the car -- in her case it's about a penguin family with a baby penguin who has never been to a fair before. She has a little outgrowing it these days, but sometimes she'll still ask for it.)
I meet Primrose's teachers who say exactly the right thing ("you look just like your daughter!"). Primrose runs in with great spirit, turning back for one last affectionate word, because that's the way she is.
Back at home, Juniper is about to have her first tub bath.
You know, the kind where you put the little tub in the kitchen sink. Many babies are dumbfounded and upset by this abrupt encounter with an endless stream of water, but Juniper appears to me to be a rather fearless baby. She's fine with every aspect of this new experience. Of course, the best part is the towel snuggle after.
All dressed and ready for life!
Well, at two months the choices are rather limited. Still, she's ready!
But first -- a nap. And in that time I go and get a haircut. I feel a little ridiculous getting that done in Chicago, but the thing is, if you follow my girl's lead in such stuff as haircut places, lunch takeout and good shoes for your feet, you wont ever go wrong. So I go to her haircut place and it feels oh so fine to be sitting in this chair and gossiping with this very very talented hair cut person about my daughter's awesomeness. Honestly, a morning doesn't get any better than that!
(Back at her home, for lunch and a bunch of last snuggles with Juniper.)
(Lunch is take out from Little Goat Diner. If you follow the food scene in Chicago, you'll know the Little Goat Diner.)
And now comes the tough part: saying good bye.
Here's the thing: my girls are so nice to me that it's always hard to pull away. I notice that in the evenings when I drop off Snowdrop at my older girl's home: I linger. And I linger. And I surely noticed that today as I lingered at my Chicago girl's home. Jacket on and still I linger... One last story, one last exchange, one last reflection...
Such good people. I know there are many many wonderful adult kids in this world and I'm not the first to feel this, but still I'm always so awed by my girls, their husbands, their families. Such really good people!
With infinite amounts of love...
